We wish our skies were that shade of blue these days. … But they’re now either clear of clouds, or the clouds are bright white, not rain-promise blue.
Nostalgic
31 07 2020Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Fine dining
30 07 2020
Do you have a great view while you eat supper? Killian’s band does. 🙂
Comments : 5 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Red in the green
29 07 2020
Mister Hayden’s band was behind him. Another stallion’s band was ahead of him. Another stallion who already has a lieutenant stallion and didn’t need any “help” from Hayden to ward off the young bachelor also on the prowl through the trees.
Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Wildie tracks
28 07 2020
Temple seems to ask if wind equals rain.
Well, usually?
We didn’t get rain during the above photography time; but it did come later, after a weirdly eerie stillness, in the dark.
I’m not sure what kind of critter made the pitter-pat tracks down her shoulder, but isn’t it cool!? 🙂 (It’s really just still-dark hair that hasn’t greyed out at the same rate as the rest of her coat.) And isn’t SHE gorgeous!
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
What, me, pose?
27 07 2020
Chipeta is another model-beautiful girl who really doesn’t have time for the glamour shots, thank you very much. 🙂
**********
Shout out to my friend Deb, who is retiring after 31 years at the newspaper in Texas where we met. She was my first journalism mentor (and one of my best), and we’ve kept in touch all this time (since I moved from there to Colorado in 2001). She has outlasted too many people to count – editors, reporters, managers – and is as feisty as ever. We’ve chortled about a great many things during our friendship, and almost every time I make it home to Texas to visit my folks, we have lunch at the Olive Garden in town, right off the highway, which now is an interstate.
I sure appreciate that you’ve kept me apprised of baseball and politics goings-on all these years, and I hope for at least 20 years more of the same!
Congrats, Deb! 🙂
Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
This guy
25 07 2020
Storm, born after a big storm swept over the basin, has a pretty calm personality – unless anything threatens his family.
If he has any pull with Ma Nature, maybe he can keep the rain coming. 🙂
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Leaking
24 07 2020
Killian might have been looking at a couple of his mares. … Or he might have been listening to thunder.
Not long after this pic was taken, we did get a little wave of sprinkles. But the bigger wave came around 8:30 p.m. And was still going as of 10 p.m. 🙂
The roof over Disappointment Valley is leaking, and we couldn’t be happier – or more relieved!
Comments : 9 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Parched and waiting
23 07 2020
This was our view last night in Spring Creek Basin. Looks pretty parched, eh? It is. Those clouds to the east beyond McKenna Peak and Temple Butte didn’t prove very helpful in the moisture department.
The horses aren’t very far from Spring Creek canyon here, which has water in holes and pools. During my hikes around the basin, I keep an eye on the seeps and have seen them recharge with even the recent little rains, so that’s encouraging.
Skywalker, above, is quite relaxed, keeping his own eyes on the band down the hill. He and his bachelor buddy napped for quite a while before finally returning to grazing as the shadows started to creep their way from the rimrocks.
Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte
Signed
22 07 2020
Thank goodness for our abundance of greasewood, which makes things look green in the basin. 🙂
We have a good-looking forecast, starting today!
All the documents for the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area Plan – signed! – now are on BLM’s ePlanning site.
From the final document:
Background: The 2015 RMP directed BLM to revise and update the 1994 Spring Creek Basin HMAP. This updated analysis and plan will incorporate specific goals, objectives, and techniques for guiding the long-term management of wild horses within the HMA consistent with the resource direction contained in the new RMP.
Decision: I have decided to select Alternative A, the Proposed Action for implementation as described in the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) Revision (DOI-BLM-CO-S010-2020-0009-EA). Based on my review of the Environmental Assessment (EA) and project record, I have concluded that the Proposed Action was analyzed in sufficient detail to allow me to make an informed decision. This decision 1) establishes an Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 50 to 80 adult wild horses that is in balance with the ecosystem and available forage; 2) implements the use of BLM approved fertility control measures to slow the annual rate of growth of the wild horse herd; 3) establishes monitoring criteria for initiating the removal of excess wild horses; 4) utilizes bait trapping as the preferred removal technique; 5) maintains genetic viability expressed as observed heterozygosity within the wild horse herd by periodically introducing outside horses from other similar herd management areas; 6) manages the wild horse herd to achieve a diverse age class and natural sex ratio; 7) establishes vegetation monitoring objectives for maintaining good ecological and forage conditions; and 8) authorizes additional new water developments for improving wild horse distribution across the HMA.
Overall, implementation of this decision will provide long-term management guidance for sustaining a healthy wild horse herd in balance with the ecosystem, while ensuring that Public Land Health Standards developed for Colorado are being achieved.
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Education, Fertility control, Partnership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Wild horses in the news, Work projects
Because … this.
21 07 2020
Not too much earlier before I took this shot, the weather radar showed another lovely green blob right over us. … What we *really* had was a whole lotta blue in the big ol’ sky! I think it comes down to this: The weather gurus are just as hopeful as we are. (Otherwise, there are seriously some techy gremlins in their weather equipment.)
In very good and wonderful news, Connie Clementson, manager of Tres Rios Field Office, released a letter Monday saying that after “thoughtful consideration of the analysis and comments received” (thank you!), she has chosen the preferred alternative – Alternative A – presented by our herd manager, Mike Jensen, for our Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area Plan revision. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Now there’s a 30-day appeal period, then the decision record becomes final, and all that we’ve worked for these last many years is the official management plan in Spring Creek Basin. Documentation, bait trapping, PZP-based fertility control, AML increase … it’s all there.
I can’t begin to articulate my gratitude and overall feelings of relief. Thank you to all those who made this happen. You know who you are, and you know you are appreciated!
The world is kinda one big crazy-town right now, but all I have to do is drive into the basin, spot some horses, walk out, plop myself on the ground (dry as it is … watching for cacti and slitheries, of course) … and all that crazy melts away.
Nature and wild horses truly are the best medicine for what ails us (somebody said that once upon a time, I’m sure of it!), and I am so blessed and thankful to have huge dollops of both in my life.
Comments : 22 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Education, Fertility control, McKenna Peak, Partnership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Wild horses in the news, Work projects
